Universal Hires Brand Development Head

Vince Klaseus will join Universal Pictures as president of the newly created brand development division. 

Klaseus will develop and implement a long-term strategic plan to expand the company’s presence in the family and kids space, including positioning Universal and creating new strategies to build and grow its portfolio of brands and consumer products. 

Klaseus will also work to centralize Universal businesses and brands to grow opportunities in the retail and non-theatrical content space. Universal partnerships and licensing president Stephanie Sperber will continue to lead NBCUniversal’s global consumer products, promotions and digital gaming efforts, which includes the merchandising and licensing of the company’s intellectual properties including Universal Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, NBC Entertainment and Sprout, reporting to Klaseus.  

Universal 1440 Entertainment executive vice president and general manager Glenn Ross will continue in his role as head of Universal Studios’ Home Entertainment’s content production arm, developing and producing kids and family entertainment for non-theatrical distribution worldwide. Ross, who currently reports to the president of worldwide home entertainment, Eddie Cunningham, will now also report to Klaseus.  

“Universal has an enormous opportunity to unify and grow our brands in a way that allows us to capitalize on existing franchises and characters and grow new ones that we can deploy across the NBCUniversal ecosystem,” says Jeff Shell, chairman, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group to whom Klaseus will report. “Vince is one of the best executives in the business at leveraging innovative strategies to create successful products, and he will be a terrific leader for this new division.”  

Klaseus comes to Universal from Cartwheel Kids, where he has served as the company’s chief executive officer since December 2012. Prior to Cartwheel, Klaseus spent 12 years at The Walt Disney Company in various capacities. In the last four years of his tenure, he served as the head of the company’s global toy division after much success in Disney’s franchise management department. Klaseus began his career at Mattel in 1995.